Sauté

For vegetable soups, always sauté the veggies before you add the stock or the water. This method enriches the taste by allowing the flavors to blend, and reduces cooking time by 5 to 10 minutes. Mihaela Lica Butler

Stirring the food with a spatula or spoon during a saute. Lots of people seem to think of sauteeing as simply cooking something on high heat. It’s not. The idea is to make sure the foods being sauteed never steam in the pot, and that means constantly “jumping” the food, not stirring it with a …

For a makeshift spatula, and delicious infused taste, put a clove of garlic on the end of a fork. This is perfect for moving around anything you’re sautéing, like spinach. Dan Kluger at Union Square Cafe.

If you find you need more oil in the pan when sautéing, add it in a stream along the edges of the pan so that by the time the oil reaches the ingredient being cooked, it will be heated.Anita Lo – Annisa, New York City